Private planes will be able to start using Tipton Army Airfield at Fort Meade beginning Oct. 1, when the Army turns it over to Anne Arundel and Howard counties to be converted into a public-use airport, according to Sam Minnitte, Anne Arundel's project manager.
Mr. Minnitte briefed Anne Arundel's General Assembly delegation on the project at a meeting Friday morning.
The Department of Defense designated the 440-acre airfield surplus property during the military's nationwide base closings and realignment in the late 1980s, and the Army must relinquish it by Sept. 30.
The Federal Aviation Administration favors creating another civilian airport in the region to reduce the number of privately owned planes using Baltimore-Washington International Airport, less than 10 miles from Tipton.
As a civilian airport, Tipton could become one of the busiest general aviation airfields in the state, with 107,000 take-offs and landings annually by 2000, according to a feasibility study done by LPA Group Inc., an aviation consultant group from Philadelphia.
Operations could reach 188,000 a year if 300 planes, the maximum allowed, are based there, the consultants said.
Frederick Municipal Airport has 200,000 operations annually and the state's second-busiest airport behind Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
As a military airport, Tipton has 52,000 take-offs and landings annually.
"This would be a very busy airport for general aviation airports," said Mark A. Kuttrus, planning supervisor at the LPA Group.
But Tipton could never accommodate commercial flights because its runway is not long enough, and the Fort Meade Coordinating Council, which sets policy for the airport, has restricted the runway length.
The airport will bring in $25 million in revenue and create 546 jobs, the consultants said. And the cost to the counties is estimated at $149,000 if the airport receives grants of $226,100 from federal and state aviation administrations.
The money is likely to be approved because both aviation administrations have favored creating a civilian airport in the region.
Mr. Minnitte said Friday that the increase in operations at Tipton should not disturb neighboring communities because the airport surrounded by Fort Meade and the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.
Officials will conduct meetings in the next month to tell residents how their communities will be affected by the conversion.
"This is a community airport," Mr. Minnitte said. "It'll be a small airport with sensitivity to the community. That is more important than profit and revenue."
The first briefing will be with the Greater Odenton Improvement Association in a meeting Wednesday at the Odenton Fire Hall.
Anne Arundel County Councilman Bert L. Rice, in whose district the airport lies, said he supports the project.
"Some have expressed concern about the noise level," said Mr. Rice, a helicopter pilot. "These public hearings will help answer these questions."
Howard County Delegate Shane Pendergrass, a Democrat jTC whose district abuts Fort Meade on the west, supports the airport but wants to make sure residents are informed.
"The economic benefit to the area is worthwhile, but I want to make sure about the noise level," she said.
Officials from both counties will also work with the Army Corps of Engineers to negotiate an interim lease. Fort Meade will not turn over the airport until it cleans up toxic and hazardous wastes at the site, probably by 1997.
The airport then will be operated by a bi-county airport authority. Howard and Anne Arundel officials decided to form the nonprofit management group and were going to submit legislation to the General Assembly this year to form the group, but decided to wait another year.
Until that authority is formed, county officials will work under a joint operating agreement and hire a manager to run the airport. The manager's salary and airfield maintenance costs will be divided between the counties, Mr. Minnitte said.